A Second Dad
by CookieCrush
Summary: After an unfortunate incident, Ellie and Joel, whom are usually talking, even if just a little bit, are both silent. The feeling of guilt overruns Ellie, and she tries to be as nice as possible to get him to talk to her again. (No romance junk, just more of a..I guess a familyship.) Warning: Contains sweetness. :D (My first story) :3


A/N: Warning! Do not read unless you've at least gotten to the part where you meet Billy. If you still want to read, you'll put yourself out for spoiler risk! Unless you have all ready gotten there, then you're fine.

Also, I'm keeping this T, because I don't feel like dropping the 'F' bomb every sentence.

Disclaimer: I don't own The Last Of Us, but it is a pretty boss game.

* * *

(Going to Billy's)

It wasn't too long ago when Tess died, and they had to get the hell out of that building because of the crazy amount of soldiers parading around. But, they managed to get passed the little bastards. Thank God.

But, even though they have survived, they still lost something. Something important. Tess. Now, Ellie didn't know much about Tess's and Joel's history, but she guessed that the two were at least even a little bit..friends. And she couldn't help but feel like it was all her fault that she had to die.

And with that covering her mind, floods of guilt kept washing over the girl. But hopefully they would get to this Billy guy's place soon. Maybe he'll have food..

"..Uh..hey.." Ellie spoke up, but her voice was still soft and forced. "Joel.." The man quickly turned to her, not muttering a single word. "Erm..who's this Billy guy anyway?"

"Let's just say, he owes me a favor." Joel answered, and turned back, walking slowly.

"So..he's not a friend?"

"I guess he's a friend." Joel replied coldly, and Ellie took that as hint to stop talking.

He must be pissed at me or something.. I mean, we at least talked a little bit, but now it's like we're enemies.. I miss talking to Joel.. With that thought in her head, she looked with the corner of her eye, instantly seeing an infected running towards Joel.

"JOEL! BEHIND YOU!" Ellie screeched, quickly rummaging for a nearby weapon to help fend off the infected.

"GAH!" Joel noised in pain as he felt the infected thing push him down through a window.

"Joel! Damn it!" Ellie cursed, and just like her prayer had been answered, she found a piece of glass lying around. "GET OFF OF HIM!"

Ellie, with much force, threw the glass inside the thing's head, destroying it to pieces as blood flew around. The girl couldn't help but smile in relief.

"You okay?" Ellie asked, and Joel cringed in reply.

"Gah!" The man panted as he realized there were pieces of glass all over him.

"Damn you're bleeding badly! Let me get the medical kit." Ellie offered, and ran back to him to retrieve the pieces of glass. "Done."

"That was quick.." Joel said as wiped his blood mouth.

"Uh-uh! I'm only done with taking out the glass. I still need to wash off the blood and wipe your cuts with peroxide. Oh! And I need to bandage you too." Ellie reminded herself, and Joel rolled his eyes, slightly frustrated

"It's fine. I don't need that stuff." Joel assured and tried to get up, but the girl quickly, but gently, pushed him back down.

"You NEED to make sure your cuts don't get infected. Otherwise, say good-bye to the whole upper-half of your body."

Joel rolled his eyes again. "Fine... Quickly."

"I'll go as quickly as possible." Ellie stated, smiling lightly.

That was the most they've talked for quite a while. It was kind of nice, but also sad that this was the only reason why they were talking.

"Okay...this might sting a little." Ellie warned beforehand, and went to wash the cuts with peroxide.

"Please, I've been through a million things. I can handle-GAHHHHH! JESUS!" Joel almost screeched as he felt the most horrible sting in his life. Even worse than a shotgun bullet.

"Jeez, I didn't think you'd scream like a girl. Hahaha." Ellie chuckled lightly, and Joel glared at her again. "Ah, right. 'Quickly.'"

With a roll of her eyes, she finished the peroxide part.

"All right..now the easiest part. Bandages." Ellie proclaimed, and Joel sighed in relief.

The 'nurse' was really annoying... Couldn't she of just left me alone? After all, what would benefit her from doing this? I'll be fine either away. Then, a feeling that Joel couldn't exactly describe happened. He wasn't sure what the feeling was, but he knew he didn't like it.

"What are you doing?" Joel asked, clasping the girl's hands together by force.

"I was only trying to bandage you. Why?" Ellie asked, kind of frightened by the sudden force.

"It didn't feel like it.." Joel said softly, but angrily.

"Well, that's what I was doing..dumbass.." Ellie said the last part very silently, and Joel let her go.

"Fine..hurry up." Joel said, rushing her, but kept his eyes locked onto her hands.

What was that feeling? It was so weird.. While watching her fingers, he realized that she was just bandaging him, like she said. But, he still felt the weird feeling. Why? Damn..what is she doing that I can't see!?

"Stop! What are you doing?" Joel asked, frustrated.

"I'm just bandaging you! What's your problem!?" Ellie answered, starting to get annoyed, until her eyes widened in realization. "Oh..now I get it."

"What? What do you get?" Joel questioned, continuing to watch her sneaky fingers closely.

"It's totally fine that you are, but..it's also kind of funny, too." Ellie, replied, giggling a bit.

"Damn it, just tell me what you're doing." Joel fumed.

Joel was getting pissed. He did NOT like this feeling at all. But..for some reason, he felt like he knew this feeling before. Like..with Sarah.

"Hold on..first, put your arms up. High up." Ellie ordered mischievously, and Joel furrowed his eyebrows.

"I'm not doing anything until you tell me what you're doing." Joel snapped, and Ellie assured it was fine.

"Come on, I'll tell you afterwards. Okay?" Even though she assured him, he still felt skeptical.

But, he did raise his arms up. However he kept his eyes tight on her.

"Can you say elephant poop?" Ellie asked, smirking a tad.

"What the..why do you-?" Joel asked, cocking both his eyebrows, confused by her.

"Just say it!" Ellie rushed him, and Joel sighed a bit before he caved into her orders.

"Elephant poo-hoohooo!" Joel was quickly interrupted by Ellie's mischievous fingers ravaging around his armpits and sides.

Why the hell did he just laugh? Wait..those memories.. Sarah..

"Gack! Whahat was that!?" Joel demanded for an answer as he held her hands up tightly.

"Damn, you're so dense. You don't even know what tickling is?" Ellie asked, sighing a bit. "It's something you can do to make someone laugh. And apparently, it worked wonders on you."

"You caniving, little-." But Joel kept his sentence short, tickling the girl back for revenge.

"Ack!" Ellie spouted, cringing as she felt his fingers tickle her stomach.

His tickling was so rough..it felt like sandpaper. Though, it somehow still made me laugh. Now..to get out of this predicament.. Somehow managing to free her one hand, she tickling his side to make him let go of her other hand. Success! Now he's in laughing fit! Oh..damn. He looks angry! And that's when my instincts told me to get the hell out of there.

"Ellie!" Joel called, seeming angry.

"Stay back, you demon!" Ellie teased, and Joel threw himself onto the girl. "Damn, you've gotten faster.."

"Ellie..what was that about?" Joel asked, his eyes locking onto hers, and she tried to avoid eye contact. "You've been acting weird."

"I've been acting weird!? What about you?"

Joel furrowed his eyebrows even more, showing a solemn face.

"This isn't about me. What's been eating you?" Joel questioned, allowing her to sit up.

"...It's..about Tess. I feel bad about it.." Ellie admitted, and she looked like she wanted to just crawl in a hole and die for just thinking about what had happened.

"So that's why you're acting all nice to me. You're pitying me.." Joel said, seeming to be upset.

"No, that's not it!" Ellie assured, and Joel looked away from her.

"I hate liars.." Joel said, and Ellie's heart sunk.

"No! Joel, that's not why I'm being all sweet to you! I miss Tess and all, and I feel horrible about it! But..this wasn't about Tess. It was about you." Joel's eyes constricted, glaring back at her. "I..miss talking to you. It's like you're my..second dad.."

Joel kept silent, only glaring at her.

"So..I'm sorry for being a bother-." Ellie tried to apologize, but was interrupted by a rather awkward hug, by the big, stout man himself. "Joel?"

"You know what? I kind of like being a second dad." Joel admitted, and hugged her tighter.

Ellie's eyes widened as soon as he said that, and two streams of tears fell down her face as she smiled an award winning smile.

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A/N: My first story~! And I kind of feel like I didn't do Joel's character too much justice.. Like I made him OOC. I'm not sure about Ellie though. I feel like I did her character a good job. But anyway, I hope you liked my story. :D

Questionnaire: What's the hardest part for you in the game, The Last Of Us? (Mine is when you're running away from a crap load of soldiers *I think that's when Tess dies* Anyway, you just keep running from them, and you have to find a way out through the water and everything.)


End file.
